The World Health Organization is inviting you to the first webinar of the Commercial Determinants of Health Webinar Series, which aims to raise awareness and understanding of these determinants, the evidence base, their impact on health and equity, and effective action for policymakers to address them.

This introductory webinar will outline the Commercial Determinants of Health, which are the actions of the private sector that directly or indirectly impact health, positively or negatively. It will set the stage to be explored further in subsequent sessions.

The webinar will cover the evolution of commercial determinants of health from their origins in the non-communicable disease agenda and particularly tobacco control; address the breadth of corporate practices impacting on health and explore the opportunities for learning from other areas such as the environment sector. Additionally, it will present the challenges and opportunities of multistakeholder and whole-of-society approaches in addressing commercial determinants of health and describe the link to the broader economic context and development agenda, particularly as we move towards recovery planning from COVID-19.

AGENDA:

Welcome and introductions:

• Naoko Yamamoto, Assistant Director-General, Universal Health Coverage / Healthier Populations, WHO
• Etienne Krug, Director, Social Determinants, WHO

Keynote presentation:

• Nick Freudenberg, Distinguished Professor of Public Health, City University of New York, United States

High level roundtable invited speakers:

• Alan Donnelly, Executive Chairman Sovereign Sustainability and Development; Patron of the G20 Health and Development Partnership; former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party
• Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts, USA; member of the WHO Council on the Economics of Health For All; member of the UN High-Level Advisory Board on Economic and Social Affairs
• James Hospedales, Special Advisor for the Healthy Caribbean Coalition; Founder and Director of EarthMedic/EarthNurse; past Director, Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA)
• Vesna-Kerstin Petric, Director-General, Public Health Directorate, Ministry of Health, Slovenia; Member of the Executive Board, WHO
• Nasruddin Djoko Surjono PhD, Head of Jakarta Development Planning Bureau
• Douglas Webb, Manager, Health and Innovating Financing HIV, Health and Development Group, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Webinar Chair and Moderator:

• Fran Baum, Professor, Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor of Public Health; Foundation Director of the Southgate Institute for Health, Society and Equity, Flinders University, Australia

Conclusions and close:

• Monika Kosinska, Head, Economic and Commercial Determinants, WHO
• Etienne Krug, Director, Social Determinants, WHO

WHY:

One of the key priorities identified for WHO is the need to raise awareness and understanding of the commercial determinants of health, their impact, and effective action for policymakers to address them. Therefore, WHO is launching a series of webinars for a diverse audience that will explore the evidence base for commercial determinants of health, how they manifest in practice, and potential actions at different levels and by different actors.

PARTICIPANTS:

WHO encourages the participation of a diverse global audience including public-interest civil society organizations, academic experts and students, donors and philanthropic partners, policymakers at a national and local level, WHO staff across levels, regions and programmes and UN agencies.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

Please contact the WHO Secretariat at cdoh@who.int for further information.

UPCOMING WEBINARS UNDER THE SAME SERIES:

1. 1. Commercial Determinants of Health: What are they? Why do they matter? What can we do?
   7 Dec 2021
2. 2. Commercial Determinants of Health: measuring what matters to inform action
   15 February 2022
3. 3. Commercial Determinants of Health: data, digital spaces and misinformation
   30 March 2022
4. 4. Commercial Determinants of Health: sustainable development, pandemic recovery and realizing the Right to Health
   3 May 2022
5. 5. Policy, accountability and trust: governing the Commercial Determinants of Health
   14 June 2022
6. 6. Partnership, equity, community: civil society leadership for the Commercial Determinants of Health
   6 September 2022
7. 7. Partnership, accountability, change: private sector accountability for the Commercial Determinants of Health
   11 October 2022
8. 8. Power, participation and politics: acting on the Commercial Determinants of Health
   13 December 2022